There’s a turning point in waiting when the time you still have to spend waiting switches from an indefinite “some time in the future” to within reach. I’ve been waiting for a thing for a year and a half, and in a sense for much longer, and a few minutes ago I realized it’s gonna happen the day after tomorrow. Yes, the day after tomorrow is different. It it something I measure in a totally diffent way compared to “one day” or even “the day after tomorrow, tomorrow”. It is almost like it’s here and that makes the whole waiting feeling much more intense. It’s like it’s real – but it still isn’t.
I’m waiting for something I’m really looking forward to, something I kind of know when it’s going to happen. It’s all nice and safe. But how is waiting different when we don’t know the day? How is it different when we know something bad is going to happen? And we don’t know when exactly? When there’s a mixture of anticipation and fear? Birth? Death?